RTÉ Longwave End of Broadcasting: April 14, 2023

Live off-air recording of some of the last day of programming from the Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ) Radio 1 longwave station on 14 April 2023 beginning at 11:55 UTC on the frequency of 252 kHz. The signal originated from a transmitter located at Clarkestown/Summerhill, County Meath, in the Republic of Ireland, reported to operate with a power of 150 kW during the day (and 60 kW during the night). The transmitter was capable of operating at 300 kW. The station used a 248-metre high single-mast antenna.

RTÉ Radio 1 is a general-interest, news, talk, and music station. It now uses FM, satellite, streaming, and cable services.

The recording starts with the final minutes of the "Louise Duffy Show," followed by the "RTÉ News at One" (which featured reports on U.S. Pres. Joe Biden's visit to Ireland) and then the first 13 minutes or so of "Liveline," an interview and phone-in chat show. The recording ends with an announcement of the shutdown of the longwave service.

Reception of the 252 kHz signal was reasonably good but it suffered from slight co-channel interference from a station in Algeria and local noise at the reception site.

RTÉ Radio 1 programming on 252 kHz ended at 23:03 UTC on 14 April 2023 and was replaced with a repeated announcement of the cessation of broadcasting on longwave and information about other ways to hear RTÉ Radio 1. It begins with the RTÉ Radio 1 interval signal "O’Donnell Abú." Examples of the announcement are included in the second three-and-a-half-minute recording which starts at about 12:34 UTC on 15 April 2023. In this recording, most of the interference has been removed by an audio filtering technique. The closedown announcements ended on 18 April 2023 at 09:59 UTC and the transmitter then fell silent.

The broadcasts were received by the Web-interface wideband software-defined radio at the University of Twente in Enschede, The Netherlands, with a "Mini-Whip" antenna in synchronous AM mode with 5.08 kHz RF filtering.

RTL Longwave End of Broadcasting: January 1, 2023

RTL longwave antenna array at Beidweiler, Luxembourg

Live off-air recording of the last approximately two hours of programming from the RTL longwave station on 1 January 2023 beginning at 22:00 UTC on the frequency of 234 kHz. The signal originated from a transmitter located in Beidweiler, Luxembourg, reported to operate with a power of 375 kW at night (and 750 kW during the day). The transmitter was capable of operating at 1500 kW. The three-mast antenna beamed the signal mostly in the direction of Paris.

RTL is a general-interest, news, talk, and music station station owned by the RTL Group with its main studios in Paris. It has an extensive FM network covering France and also uses other broadcasting means such as DAB+ and streaming services.

The final two hours of programming was produced and presented by long-time French broadcaster Georges Lang, a devotee of English-language rock, pop, and blues music primarily from the 1960s through the 1980s. The first hour was a special New Year's version of the "Georges Lang Collection" followed by "Les Nocturnes," a program Lang has done for fifty years. The transmitter left the air at 00:00:05 UTC.

The broadcast was received by the Web-interface wideband software-defined radio at the University of Twente in Enschede, The Netherlands, with a "Mini-Whip" antenna in AM mode with 9.00 kHz RF filtering. Reception was excellent.

Europe 1 Longwave End of Broadcasting: December 31, 2019

Live off-air recording of the last approximately one hour of programming from the Europe 1 longwave station on 31 December 2019 beginning at 21:30:42 UTC on the frequency of 183 kHz. The signal originated from a 750 kW transmitter (perhaps operating at 375 kW; one of two capable of a joint power of 1500 kW) located between the villages of Felsberg and Burus in the municipality of Überherrn in Saarlouis, Germany, about 1 km from the French border.

Europe 1 is a primarily news and talk station owned by Lagardère Group with programming originating in Paris. It has an extensive FM network covering France and will soon be on DAB+. The longwave station has operated for the past few years using one or two of a pair of 750 kW transmitters and a two-mast antenna originally designated as the reserve antenna (the original four-mast antenna and the old transmitter in the original transmitter hall were all decommissioned following an antenna mast accident). The new transmitting facility was operated remotely by BCE (Broadcasting Center Europe) from Luxembourg.

The final hour of programming was the phone-in help program "Antenne Libre" with Olivier Delacroix.

The broadcast was received by the Web-interface wideband software-defined radio at the University of Twente in Enschede, The Netherlands, with a "Mini-Whip" antenna in AM mode with 9.00 kHz RF filtering.